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2011-11-23 - Secrets and Revelations
It's only a short time after Aurora made the phone call to set the meeting with Susan, but by the time Susan gets to the place, it seems like Aurora has been waiting for quite some time. She seems to have worked her way to settle on a tree branch, swinging her legs, as usual regardless of the fact she's wearing a skirt, almost as if she was inviting people to look should they catch a glimpse of her. When Aurora called, of course Susan took the call. She likes Aurora, even if the other woman can be a tad exasperating at times. And if Aurora needs to talk one on one, well, Sue can make the time. She lets Janet know where she's going, and then heads out. Even so, it's nearly forty minutes before she finally arrives, walking along the path in the Park towards the spot Aurora mentioned. Susan is a bit dressed down today, compared to her usual attire, wearing sleek dark blue slacks, short boots with a modest heel, a white poet's blouse and a medium grey-blue sweater, along with a knee-length leather trenchcoat, currently worn open. She follows the path, looking around, and stops near the tree, looking up at Aurora with a little smirking smile. "I don't think you're a kitten, so I suppose no need to call the fire department to help you down. You alright up there?" she inquires. Aurora is looking down at Susan when she makes her approach, and when Susan finally spots her, she twirls her fingers in a jovial greeting, "Hi Susan! Nope, last I checked I'm no kitten, though some guys at the club called me just that...amongst other things. So, you wanna join me up here on the branch? Or shall I join you down there?" Aurora asks, clearly not taking consideration to Susan's clothes, not the best suited for climbing. "If you do prefer to talk down, I'll manage without the fire department," she says with a giggle and a wink, somewhat amused by Susan's joke. "I think I would prefer to do this at ground level, dear." Susan offers to Aurora with a smile. "I'm not much for climbing trees." Then again, Sue wouldn't have thought Aurora's mini-skirted affair would have been much for climbing trees either. Apparently she was mistaken. "How have you been?" she inquires upwards at the lovely raven-haired woman, waiting for her to come down. So far, she's managing not to blush herself into a faint at Aurora's usual antics. Thus far. "No problem then, coming down," Aurora announces, taking a moment to consider the distance from the ground, she climbs down a level, and then jumps the rest of the way down, her mini-skirt flailing about, but she shows no great concern, safe in the knowledge gravity will get it back in place. "I've doing terrific! Ever since I shared some of that Butterfly Wings stuff with the girls I'm way more popular, and everyone's so much nicer to me. How have you been, Susan?" Aurora asks before sneaking a tight embrace around Susan, "been busy?" Susan is now being hugged enthusiastically by a woman in towering heels and a miniskirt that, moments ago, was more around her waist than the rest of her. Goodness, how does she get herself into these things?! Still, Sue hugs Aurora back, letting the excited torrent of words spill over her and distilling from that what she can. "That's great. I'm glad that this has made you more popular with your coworkers. And I have seen the orders your friends have placed, so clearly the product is winning them over. I'm glad to see that." Of course, the bottom line of StormDyne Applied Sciences is glad too. The holiday shopping season is taking off, and Butterfly Wings seems to be a smashing success. It's the 'iPad' of 2011. "We have been doing very well. The product launch has done wonders. And our charity work has been amazingly successful." Released at last from the hug, Susan smiles a bit ruefully and shrugs. "Always busy, I suppose. But that's a good thing, really." "I told you that kind of product can't fail, it's too genius," Aurora mentions as she finally releases Susan from her tight embrace and winks at her with a clear level of playful seduction, "did you see the papers about our 'date' at the restaurant? Pretty hot, don't you think? That cheeky photographer got quite a shot of me...of course, your friend Janet had to ruin all the fun and tell everyone what really happened..." so it looks like at least one of them was enjoying the gossipy tabloids. Aurora nods with Susan's words, and then waiting for a lull in the conversation, she suddenly quips, "I wonder how you ever find time to help all the people you help..." "Well, we're surely hoping you're right." Susan answers Aurora, smiling. They've bet quite a bit of the company on it, so the fact that it seems to be paying off is a great thing. The publicity hasn't hurt, either. "I saw the papers, believe me." But she gapes as Aurora proves that /she/ found it awesome and amazing, every bit of it. Poor Sue was so unbearably mortified, she begged and pleaded with Janet until Jan promised to make it all stop. And as usual, Jan did so. Which is why Janet van Dyne is Susan's personal superhero. But then Aurora pulls out her question, and Sue looks at her confusedly. "We just do everything we can to make time. Charity events, volunteer time for Doctors Without Borders, anything we can do to help. Schedules get tight at times. But the whole point of StormDyne Applied Sciences was to make science work for people, helping people and making the world a better place. So we do what we can." Of course, Sue has no idea just what Aurora is really implying. Boy is she going to be surprised! "Did you like it? I mean, sure, the way they covered my behind kinda stole that picture, I guess...not very fair to you, but I was very amused by the article. I mean, seriously, was I dressed like a dominatrix? These tabloid guys should stop by the Hellfire Club sometime, so they can meet a real one..." Aurora laughs lightly, really having a good time with this, just an anectode and that's it. Then again, she doesn't really have a public image to perserve, "so have people been treating you different after 'discovering' that you're a 'lesbian'?" Aurora is now clearly teasing Susan, her intense blue eyes relentlessly seeking out Susan's while her lips curve in an impish smile. "Yeah, yeah, Doctors Without Borders, charity, cool stuff," Aurora says in a surprisingly dismissive tone, adding a discarding gesture with her hand as well, "but I'm talking about the real serious help. You know, I didn't really think about the first few times when I saw it in the news, or read it in the papers..bbbbuuuutttt..." she sneaks closer to Susan and whispers in her ear, "that device you used at the kareoke club...you're the Invisible Woman, aren't you? Don't deny it! I got you! Nobody else has such a device." Susan blushes a bit, caught off-guard as Aurora continues teasing her about the article and the pictures. "Well, I don't really know ..." she starts, trying to bring up that she has no idea what a dominatrix would wear, but what's the point. She's mostly just spluttering a bit, poor dear. "A few people have teased me about it." she admits. She doesn't bring up a lot of it, but it shows in her own blue eyes. Susan has probably been ragged on pretty bad by all of that. Her lilly-white public image was just too perfect for folks to resist when given a chance to 'deflate' her a bit. And her close personal relationship with Janet, and lack of any apparent dates with men lately, only fueled the fire and speculation. Aurora's dismissal of their charity works confuses Susan, who is a bit sad. That stuff is important to her, so she wants it to be important to her friends - even the ones who work as strippers at high-priced domination clubs. But she is totally non-plussed ... until she's not. Until she's spluttering for real. She remembers Janet mentioning that she'd convinced Aurora it was a device she used to disappear. But she's still gaping. "I am sure many people have such devices, whether better or worse than ours. Tony Stark for one, given all of his military contracts and the importance of stealth technologies. I ... I can understand why you would think that might be me. But really! How would I do all of those amazing things? This Invisible Woman person is clearly either a metahuman, or perhaps some sort of alien, or advanced robot or powersuit." Can she deflect Aurora from this course? She has no idea. But she has to try, doesn't she? Aurora laughs rather loudly at the prospect of professional mannered Susan getting teased about the article, finding quite a bit of mirth in the knowledge, "I wish I was there, sounds pretty hilarious!" It takes a few moment before Aurora stops laughing long enough to quip, "not that there's anything wrong with it if you were, right? I mean, I'm cool with all sorts of people, I don't judge, at least not a lot. I tend to be rather easygoing." Aurora makes a pantomime gesture of knocking on Susan's head, "come on, Susan, Tony Stark? Seriously? He's the last man to turn himself invisible, he'll make sure everyone knows just how great he is at every opportunity he gets!" Aurora certainly made up her mind about Tony Stark, a man she never ever met, and all she knows about him comes from the media. Aurora listens to what Susan has to say, and then perks up, "well, you're not suggesting by any chance that I'm only saying it because I'm trying to deflect from the fact it's actually me, are you? I'm not moddest enough to go invisible...but you, Susan, I could totally see you helping people and being just fine with nobody else knowing about it. Admit it, I got you! Didn't I?" Aurora seems to take herself for Sherlock Holmes himself, quite proud of her skills of deduction, even though admittedly, not too many people can have devices to turn them invisible. It seems Susan's attempts to deflect this are amounting to less than she would have hoped. "He still could have developed the technology, like he did that Iron Man suit, and given it to someone else to use." she insists regarding Tony Stark. "I mean, isn't that a heck of a lot more likely than /me/ being some ... what? Super hero? Me?" After all, Susan's not brave, or strong. She's a scaredy-cat, and she has proven that countless times to Aurora. Whatever would make the other woman believe she could have the guts to do the sorts of things that this Invisible Woman has done? "I'll admit, I'm modest. Shy, even. And I probably wouldn't hesitate to do that sort of thing invisibly, if I ever did that sort of thing." Susan confesses, assuring Aurora that she's not totally off-base. She is right about Susan's psychology. "But can you really see me attacking supervillains? Battling superweapon-toting terrorists? Or somehow miraculously moving /tons/ of dirt and sod back into place without anyone seeing how I did it? How could I do anything like that?" she asks. After all, it's not hard to imagine something like Butterfly Wings leading to some kind of invisibility suit. But what about the other things Invisible Woman is said to have done? "I think Tony Stark would make sure everybody knew he was behind this if he was, too much ego on that man, but you? That's very likely, this Invisible Woman never tries to take credit for what she does, not a pip out of her, she just does the job and the media speculates after..." Aurora nods sagely as if she pretty much proved beyond all doubt that Susan can be the one and only Invisible Woman. "So, I take it this is your secret identity? Pretending there's nothing heroic about you, huh? Pretty clever, you almost fooled me. I'm surprised it took me so long to figure it out. I should have known fromt he first moment after you disappeared at the kareoke bar." Aurora starts pacing around Susan when she brings up all of the other details, and muses aloud, "science? You do all kinds of nifty stuff with it already, who's to say you couldn't come up with a device to move all that other stuff, huh? Or maybe you have help? Did you let someone else use your ivisibility device?" A second later and Aurora is right next to Susan, nudging her playfully, "can I use it? Boy do I have some pranks in mind!" Susan sighs a bit as it seems no matter what she says, Aurora won't believe her, won't even begin to entertain the thought that the Invisible Woman could be anyone but Susan herself. "You think /I'm/ heroic? Aurora, really. If anyone at StormDyne is a heroine, that would be Janet. And you know she would enjoy using our technology like that, hiding from everyone while doing all these impossible things. But really, we don't have anything at StormDyne that could do these things. Not yet, anyway." She won't deny that it is her hope and goal that someday they will have tech that can do these things. Just as it is surely the hope and goal of others, like Stark International or Wayne Enterprises. Honestly, Susan hates lying, and would to an extent love nothing more than to just confess to Aurora and drop it. But Aurora has not exactly proven herself to be a paragon of secrecy or discretion thus far. Susan is afraid of what Aurora would do with the information - not even intentionally - if she had any confirmation at all. So the poor blonde has to do what she can to disarm this. It's not proving easy. "Aurorra! I couldn't just loan out technology like that for pranks." Truth is, she's half-owner of the company. She could do just about whatever she wants. But she never /would/ do that. "You let me pull you all the way up to the Kareoke stage, and while I can be quite persuasive, I'm pretty sure I'd peg you for someone who'd manage to melt away from my grasp, so props to you for having the courage to follow me up there!" Aurora grins widely at Susan, clearly jesting, and yet there's a level of seriousness in her voice. Aurora does seem to agree with Susan's suggestion about Janet, "the way she approached me at the club, I'd say she certainly is more self assured than you are, no offense, just a fact." When Susan continues to just deny it over and over, Aurora sighs, and then lowers her head, "and here I thought I was finally right about something before anyone else. It's so annoying. For a moment it looks like she just gave up on the idea, but then another path seems to come to her mind, as she suddenly levels her gaze with Susan, renewed hope sparkling in her blue eyes, "how about a trade! You tell me the truth about you, and I'll tell you the truth about me. Clearly you're playing me because you don't know if you can trust a dancer, huh? You think I talk too much? That's not fair the tabloids wrote that story all on their own, I would have made it seem much grander." She pauses a moment and laughs, "I'm only kidding though, I'd tell the truth." Sue honestly feels a bit guilty for misleading Aurora like this, especially when Aurora seems so disappointed by it all. It nearly breaks the blonde's reserve. And if Aurora had left it like that, Susan probably would have caved and told her the truth. But when Aurora turns this around into something more mercenary than emotional, Susan gets her second wind and pulls back from that inner brink. "Come on, Aurora. Let's be fair, here. You're pretty much an open book. I'm sure I know everything about you that there is to know. Not that it's a bad thing, but honestly." The blonde hugs the brunette, smiling ruefully. "I wouldn't 'play' you. I couldn't be that hurtful or mean-spirited." And she wouldn't, really. She still feels awful for misleading Aurora like this. "You know, I'm still very flattered that you would ever think that I had what it takes to be a hero like that." Susan confesses. "Thank you for that." "Okay, let's have a bet around it then, if you think you know all there is to know about me, why don't you prove it?" Aurora seems awfully cocky, as if she's sure she has something up her sleeve that Susan could never case. It's almost cute how smugly she lifts her nose in the air all of a sudden, "if you know all there is to know about me, I won't ever bug you again, but if you don't...then you let me borrow the invisibility device! That way we can see if the Invisible Woman still makes an appearance while I have the device, clever, isn't it?" Aurora offers, "and I still didn't give you, I just don't have the evidence yet. But I will after I win this bet!" Susan plays the hand she has been dealt, though she has no invisibility device to offer. "Alright. You're an exotic dancer originally from Canada. You've risen to quite a height in a short period of time, and you have remained relatively clean compared to other dancers. There's no connections between you and illegeal drugs, though you have been known to drink to excess. And sometimes you will leave a club without telling anyone, only to appear at another club. So far, your Green Card and work status are without restrictions. And you are fluent in French as well as English. That's what I know about you. That and your lovely singing voice and your very fearless, open and unrestricted attitude with life." It's not enough. Somehow she senses that. Aurora thinks she has won this just by playing, and she may well be right. But Susan does her best. "Not bad, not bad at all, tres magnifique, in fact," Aurora giggles, clearly enjoying the thought that Susan has apparently bothered to find out information about her, it's flattering as far as she's concerned. "There's just one big thing that you missed," or two if you were to ask the side of Aurora that nobody else in the States has witnessed yet. "Care to take a guess?" Susan could posit the guess that Aurora is bisexual. She could be wrong, but comments the woman has made in their association lead her to that conclusion. But does that really matter? She thinks not, honestly. Aurora has certainly made no securet of that fact, so that can't be what she is waiting for. But as it is all she has left, she plays that card too, as crude as she feels doing so. "I don't have direct proof of this. But my supposition from things you have said, and things I have read, is that you are bisexual. I have no idea if that is what you mean, however." And poor Sue just wants to /die/. This is so mortifying. There are many things that Sue could have said, to which Aurora would just laugh and say she won the bet. But of all things, Sue found the one thing that's bound to make Aurora play right off, as she quickly slides right next to Susan, winking at her suggestively, "was that a hopeful question? Or a real educated guess? Because if you're hitting on me, I'm total free for a date tonight..." she even goes as far as to slowly, teasingly, start wrapping her arms about Susan, giving her ample time to escape though. She is mostly playing her after all. Aurora's play makes Susan blush, backing up a bit until she is wrapped in Aurora's arms, that suggestive wink burning the poor embarrassed blonde. "What? N-no ... " That wasn't at all what she meant! Susan stammers a bit, and then holds up a hand to press gently against Aurora, holding her back a bit. Of course, the hand is on Aurora's sternum, so not the best placement considering. "I appreciate the offer, Aurora, and I am flattered. But no. That was just my educated guess, the only other thing I could think of that I know about you." Why is it everyone thinks poor Sue is into other women? (Is it possible they know something Sue hasn't realized herself? Couldn't be!) Aurora is kind enough to not keep pressing when Susan holds a hand up to stave off her advance, which she allows, although not without a feat of laughter, "don't say you didn't see that coming! Ha! Anyways, that wasn't it..." Aurora looks even more elfin now that she harbors a delightful giddy expression on her face. "So you giving up yet?" Susan sighs a bit, but does smirk and nod. "OK, true. I suppose I should have seen that coming. But I just said, that was all else I could think of. If that's not your remaining secret, then I don't know whatever it may be." Part of her finds it so impossible to believe that someone with Aurora's way about her could /keep/ a secret. And yet ... she knew this would play out this way from the moment Aurora suggested it. Otherwise, why would she? "You totally should have! See? You don't know me as well as you think you do!" Aurora winks again and does a little celebratory twirl on one leg, which does show she has some nice dancing skills in general. "So...do I get yo borrow the invisibility device then?" "Well, you still haven't proven there's anything about you I don't already know." Susan admits. Oh, she's sure there's something. But she's not about to just admit defeat, not after all of this! It's reckless to keep pushing, but what else can she do? "Well, now there's a point where I am about to tell you a very big secret about myself," while Aurora is sounding quite positive about it, in reality, even what she's considering to share with Sue isn't the biggest secret, at least not on a personal level for her. "But, that has to mean that I can trust you completely," even more ironic, considering it is Susan who is the far more trustworthy of the two. "Buuuuuttt...I really like you, your product, and your conduct. You're probably the most saintly woman I ever met, and I've been to a Catholic School believe it or not." Now that has to be a joke, right? What does stand out is the way she reveals what she means to reveal. "I'm special," the words are whispered, but softly, right into Susan's ear, and almost at the same time she hears the whisper there's a rush of wind as though something move ridiculously fast. Aurora is no longer infront of Susan, but rather behind her, leaning over her shoulder. "I'm anything but saintly, Aurora." Susan admonishes, gently. Oh, how less than saintly she feels, knowing she has been playing Aurora, trying to mislead her, pushing her all this time. It's so mean. And she can't really imagine Aurora at a Catholic school, but she supposes it might make sense as a personality backlash against it. Maybe. The rush of wind catches Susan by surprise, naturally, and she looks around trying to figure out and process what changed. It takes her a moment to realize that Aurora as moved. Moved, without being seen. Moved so fast that she created a breeze all by herself. The blonde gapes. "You're ... your Gifted? Really?" she whispers, not wanting to advertise this. In spite of herself, she never would have guessed this. Never. Personality backlash is so much closer to what Aurora really is than anyone would ever imagine, showing just how sharp Susan's wit is even when she hypotheizes about things she doesn't know anything about. At least not yet. When Susan turns around to look at her, having realized what happened, Aurora is grinning wide from ear to ear, "that I am. I have actually did my share of crimefighting, but I always beat the media so they have no clue. That's why nobody really heard about Aurora...ask in Quebec province in Canada, however, and some would know." Susan gasps softly, blue eyes wide with surprise. No, she never would have guessed this, nor would she ever have guessed Aurora could keep something like this a secret. (Let's all ignore that in point of fact, Aurora /can't/ keep this a secret, as Susan /does/ now know the truth. That would just ruin the outcome here.) "That is very impressive, Aurora. I would never have guessed that about you, or that you could keep something like that a secret. I admit it. You got me." Aurora curtsies with a flourish, which looks rather comicaly in her mini-skirt of questionable modesty if any at all. "Told you that you don't know everything about me, and I've been keeping it a secret for a very long time. You're the first person I ever revealed this to, seriously, nobody in the club knows. Nobody anywhere knows...well, except for one creep in Montreal who got a serious beating, but he totally deserved it!" Susan nods her head a bit, acknowledging her defeat. "Well, you certainly surprised me, Aurora. I am impressed." The confession hurts, especially as it puts Susan one step closer to having to figure out what to do next. If she admits to Aurora there is no device, Aurora will be angry with her for lying, and at Janet too. But if she doesn't admit it, then she has to produce an invisibility device. And she doesn't have one! "You win." For starters, Aurora looks pleased enough with her winning the bet, and she's also doesn't go into detail on what they say about wagers in general. After all, it doesn't reflect well on her either. A hand is soon wrapped around Susan's neck as Aurora gives her another amicable hug, "so you see, Susan, you never have to use the invisibility device to escape again, because I'll come to the rescue if anyone ever is stupid enough to get in your face! Now, when do I get to borrow the invisibility device? I can't wait to have some fun with it...all harmless, I promise!" Susan is rather summarily trapped. What is she going to do? What is she going to say? "I don't have an invisibility device ... with me." True, as far as it goes. But she's clearly holding back. "I don't really know when I can get you a working unit. It hasn't worked out well so far." A device to replicate Susan's powers? No, that hasn't gone well so far. Not well at all. "But you won the bet, fair and square. As soon as I have a working unit, I promise to let you borrow it for your ... harmless pranks." A very bad idea. But given Susan has no idea when she might ever have such a device, it's a rather open-ended promise. But it probably won't make Aurora very happy. "Hopefully you can find this Invisible Woman, whoever she is." "I guess that makes sense, I mean, why would you bring it just for a meeting with me? I don't ever make you want to disappear...oh wait," Aurora giggles as she recalls their first meeting, "well, not always!" Listening to the explanation, Aurora suddenly blinks, her eyes lighting up, "gotcha! This is sooooooo cool!!! We should totally team up on crime sometime!" With a sigh, Susan just shakes her head. "If you can find this Invisible Woman person, you should ask her that. I won't be any good 'teaming up on crime'." She is still trying desperately to sell this. She's not a very good liar, honestly, but she is doing her absolute level best to be as convincing as possible. Still, she gives Aurora a brief hug. "Thank you for trusting me with your secret. I promise to keep it safe. You have my word, Aurora. And I will do my best to be a bit braver in the future." That said, she sighs a bit. "I think I need to get heading back to the office, for now. You have a good evening, Aurora. We'll talk again soon." Oh, when Janet gets a load of this, she's going to flip! "Susan, I may not be a genius like you, but I'm not stupid either. You just admitted to not even having a working invisibility device, and I totally saw you go invisible..." Aurora partially-blames and partially-taunts, managing to get this tone of losing patience and being hurt at the same time, yet with this weird half-smile that suggests she doesn't entirely mean what she hints at. "See you around then, Susan, and don't worry, I won't tell anyone," she winks, still pressing her point despite Susan's refusal to admit to it. "That's because the unit I had is broken, silly. It's a protoype." Susan complains. This is never going to work! Still, there's nothing more she can do, so Susan heads back to work. Janet is going to scold her so badly for this!